


A Little Extra Love

by TakingOverMidnight3482



Series: Fluff Month (April 2020) [13]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5+1 Things, All just really fluffy scenarios, Multi, Post series finale, fluff month, mostly about klance but the main group is there for a bit of it too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 03:21:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23638246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TakingOverMidnight3482/pseuds/TakingOverMidnight3482
Summary: "Keith, my man, I HAVE to give you a tour."Keith's shoulders bounced with laughter. "Fine by me. Where's Kaltenecker?""We ate her," Lance deadpanned.~~Or, five fluffy occurrences between our two favorite paladins, and one EXTRA fluffy moment.
Relationships: Curtis/Shiro (Voltron), Hunk/Shay (Voltron), Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: Fluff Month (April 2020) [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1685734
Comments: 5
Kudos: 205





	A Little Extra Love

**Author's Note:**

> Day Thirteen: Six
> 
> I had actually written about half of this about two months ago and then I just kind of lost inspiration, so I decided to finish it for this month. A classic 5+1 fic, ft klance, ofc. Five fluffy interactions, and the one extra fluffy interaction at the end (that's a pun, as you'll discover, but also the truth)
> 
> Hope everyone is still hanging in there. Prompts for tomorrow are at the bottom!

_One_

The first time that Keith visited Lance on his family farm was almost three months after he had taken back off into space with the Blade, five months after they had saved the universe, and just over three years since they had started their Voltron adventure at all.

It was Veronica who alerted him to his presence, leaning out the back door while Lance was wrist deep in the mud pulling up potatoes for the farmers market on Saturday. "Ay! Galra Boy is here!"

Lance blinked once, twice, and then twisted at the hips to stare at his sister. "What?"

Her lips played at a wry smile. "Galra Boy? Tall, dark, and grizzled?"

Keith leaned out next to her, chuckling, and the appearance of him floored Lance. He hadn't seen Keith in months, hadn't seen anyone from Voltron in several weeks, and it hadn't hit until that moment how much he missed all of them.

His hair was longer, pulled back at the nape of his neck with a red ribbon, and he was in his Blade leader uniform. The sight of the uniform made Lance grow serious. "Is everything okay?" he asked, standing up and suddenly remembering the mud all over his hands. He dusted them on his jeans as Keith walked over.

"Fine," he promised, his smile softening into something friendly, familiar. "Krolia and Kolivan had a meeting with Sam, and you're the closest to the Garrison aside from Pidge, but she's off world with Matt, so I thought I would come say hi."

"You…?"

Lance trailed off, warmth blooming in his chest, and he smiled. "Hey, man."

Keith held up a hand, clasping Lance's despite the dirt covering it, and squeezed. "Need any help?" he asked, gaze flickering to the potatoes all over the ground.

Lance snorted. "As if. I'm visiting with my friend. Veronica can finish up."

Veronica squawked from where Lance knew she was standing in the doorway and he smirked. "That's what you get for coming home between missions!"

She flipped him off and Keith spluttered a laugh, his cheeks rosy. "You know, she actually reminds me a lot of Shiro when he was younger," he noted as Lance guided him off the plot of land.

Lance lifted a brow. "Oh really?"

Keith's grin widened. "Oh yeah. He taught me to ride the hover cycle, you know."

"Oh, so he's the one I have to yell at for you almost killing us."

"Um, I've saved your ass plenty since then."

Lance laughed and held out an arm, tucking it into Keith's before he could protest. "Indeed you have. BUT! Keith, my man, I HAVE to give you a tour."

Keith's shoulders bounced with laughter. "Fine by me. Where's Kaltenecker?"

"We ate her," Lance deadpanned.

The yelp that came from Keith's mouth was the greatest thing Lance had ever heard, and he didn't bother to hold his laughter back. "I'm kidding, dude. We couldn't eat her if we wanted to."

Keith breathed what sounded suspiciously like a sigh of relief. "Why's that?" he asked as Lance veered them towards the barn.

Lance waved a dismissive hand. "Pidge and her mom ran some scans on her when we got back to Earth, something about being in space affected her, and now she's slightly radioactive and immortal."

"…I'm sorry, WHAT?"

Lance snorted and flung the door to the barn wide, latching back onto Keith's arm when he was finished. They passed a few other cows before reaching what was clearly Kaltenecker's pen, if the flourished decorations and Altean quotes were anything to go by. Kaltenecker mooed when she saw the duo and trudged over, butting her nose up into Keith's hand for pets. "Yeah, she's kind of radioactive. Doesn't affect her milk at all, but if we ate her we could probably die. Plus also she's pretty much immortal now. No idea how that happened, but Mrs. Holt said that her cells were regenerating or something in such a way that she doesn't age. So."

He looked Keith dead in the eyes. "Immortal space cow."

Keith clapped a hand over his mouth, struggling to hide his laughter, and Lance grinned. "Coran went a little wild with the decorations when he found out. He ah…he wanted her to feel "at home, like she was back on the castle ship" if you can believe that."

"Ah yes," Keith said in a monotone, rolling his eyes. "Because an immortal space cow's most beloved pasture is that of a 10,000-year-old castle ship hologram."

They dissolved into giggles.

_~~_

_Two_

Eight months after the final battle, Lance joined Pidge on a trip to a neighboring solar system to visit a planet called Rugasal, which was home to a race of aliens that would put human body builders to shame. They had been one of the few planets in the solar system not to fall to the Galra take over, and had come out of hiding when Honerva had been defeated.

Pidge was going to run diplomacy papers over to one of the coalition members on the planet for Matt and her father, and when Lance heard she was going, he had almost begged her to let him pilot.

He missed it, if he was honest.

No, he didn't miss the battles, the fighting, the constant near-deaths. His heart still ached for all the people he had lost, and there was a dull, stabbing reminder of that every time he looked in the mirror.

What Lance missed most was piloting, the roar of an engine under his feet, the feeling of sweat between his hands and the controls as he pulled off maneuvers that made Hunk sick to his stomach. He missed the lions, especially, but they hadn't responded to any of the paladins for almost six months now.

He could still feel them, though, and he knew without asking that the others could too, because he could still feel them, too, at times, soft and gentle in the back of his head. An ever present headache without the pain.

Pidge had agreed immediately, probably sensing just how badly he wanted to fly, and, after promising his parents he'd be back, he'd packed a bag and gotten Marco to drive him to the Garrison.

Yeah, Lance didn't do cars. As much as he loved piloting, he hadn't gotten his driver's license when they returned to Earth for good. Despite the fact that he was well over sixteen now, almost twenty, he had no desire to drive a car.

Neither, it seemed, did Hunk or Pidge. Of all the paladins, only Shiro and Keith had a license, but considering Keith was never on Earth, his was pretty moot.

Rugasal was a desert planet, but the town they landed in was centered in an oasis, palms and springs as far as the eye could see. Lance parked them on a landing strip and stepped out laughing with Pidge at an old Garrison joke (something about Hunk and the time he tried to rescue all the experimental rats from the science lab), only to choke off his laughter in surprise at the sight of Keith standing on the tarmac, talking to a Rugasalian.

"Keith?" he asked in surprise.

The man in question looked up, a startled appearance crossing his features that eased into something excited and gentle. "Lance! I didn't know you were coming."

Pidge grinned, pulling off her flight helmet and ruffling at her own hair to make it calm down. "He really, really wanted to pilot. I didn't know you were the correspondent, Keith."

"I'm not," Keith snorted. "The actual correspondent you were meeting with is sick, and I was at a nearby Blade outpost. They knew I knew you so they called me over. I haven't seen you in forever, Pidge."

He hugged her tightly and then turned to Lance, clapping a hand on his shoulder and squeezing gently. "How's the farm? Your family?"

Lance smiled, soft. "They're good. Kaltenecker is as immortal as ever."

Keith and Pidge both snorted at that, and something warm twisted in Lance's gut. So close. They were so close to getting the group back, it killed him. "I miss you guys," he found himself saying before he could stop.

The two looked up in surprise and Lance gave a sheepish smile, shrugging. "Sorry, just…hit me. How…"

"How much we don't see each other anymore?" Pidge asked, her tone sad and wistful.

He nodded and Keith pursed his lips, looking away. "Yeah. It's…it's weird, I used to hate living with so many people, and now…now I miss the constant drone of noise. I think it's why I agreed to this so quickly. I missed Pidge, and I knew she'd have to stay overnight, so I just…jumped at it. Lance coming was a surprise bonus."

Lance managed a grin. "I'm a bonus, huh?"

A wry smile slid over Keith's lips. "For now, yes. Don't push it, Sanchez."

"You're no fun."

Pidge grinned. "Race you guys to the guest quarters?"

She didn't even give them a chance to respond, bolting for the building in the distance and leaving Lance and Keith to look at one another. "Our legs are longer," Lance noted.

"Much," Keith agreed.

They broke into a sprint, flanked either side of Pidge, and swept her from the ground by the arms, laughing amidst her screeched protests.

_~~_

_Three_

One year after the defeat of Honerva, they all gathered together on Altea for a weekend, having dinner together at the foot of Allura's statue. The lions took off that night, leaving them all restless and unable to sleep.

Lance took it upon himself to go for a walk, grabbing a jacket from his guest quarters and slipping out the back door. Hunk, Pidge, and Shiro were laughing about something in the kitchen, and Coran was setting up a movie in the main room. He assumed Keith had gone back to sleep, and for some reason he didn't want to tell anyone he was leaving.

He shut the door behind him, soft, and turned, breathing out and dragging in the smell of the juniberry garden behind the building. There were dozens of them, mixed amongst Earth flowers like roses and carnations and tulips. The air was overwhelmed with the scent of them all.

Lance shrugged his jacket on against the chill of the night and shoved his cold hands into the pockets. The marks on his cheeks still glowed, dim, and they were impossible to get out of his peripheral vision. He wished they had an off switch.

"Going somewhere?"

The sound he made was sure to become blackmail, hand instinctively reaching for a bayard that was no longer there. Never would be again. Lance shook the thought off and looked at Keith, who was sitting on a bench amongst a rose trellis, also in his pajamas, a jacket thrown over his own shoulders. He leaned forwards onto his knees, lifting an eyebrow. He had trimmed his hair since the last time Lance had seen him, and it framed his face messily.

"I…just wanted to get out. Clear my head."

Lance's hand lifted without him thinking about it, brushing his fingers across his glowing marks. A frown twisted at his lips and Keith stood, head tilted. "Do you…need company? Or want me to leave you alone?"

He gave Keith a small smile. "No, I…you can stay. Thanks. F-For asking, I mean."

Keith shrugged, stuck his own hands in his pockets, and sidled up to Lance, bumping their shoulders together gently as they started walking. The paths turned and twisted through the garden, marching them in circles, and yet somehow they never saw the same things twice. They traveled in silence for a bit, arms occasionally brushing, a reminder that they were not alone.

Keith broke it first. "You okay?"

Lance hummed, knowing instinctively what he meant. "Yeah, actually," he whispered, surprised by his own answer. "I mean…I miss her a lot, you know?"

"Yeah," Keith agreed, and they both looked to where the statue loomed in the night. "I do too."

"But I…I miss her, yeah. And I still love her. But I think…I think I'm okay. I'm more okay now than I have been in a while. And maybe…maybe that's dumb? Or wrong? I don't know. But I think that…not now, but soon, I…I might be able to move on. Is that…am I wrong? For thinking like that so soon?"

"It's been a year, Lance," Keith said gently, stopping him and setting a hand on his shoulder. "She'd want you to be happy, you know that."

"I know." When had he started crying? "I know, but I…I feel so guilty. Like what, I pine after her the whole time we're in space and then suddenly I'm over her?"

"You're not 'over' her," Keith protested, voice gentle. He squeezed Lance's shoulder again, harder. "You just…your emotions have settled, and now you're starting to be ready to look at someone else like you looked at her."

There was something wistful in Keith's voice, and Lance looked up, his brows furrowing. "Are…are you okay?" he managed, lifting his hand to set it on top of Keith's.

Keith smiled, his eyes glimmering with something Lance couldn't quite place. "Yeah. I am. I'll be better once I know you feel better."

Lance huffed, his breath hitching, and Keith hesitated. His fingers tightened on Lance's shoulder and he pulled him closer, lifting his other arm up and dragging it around Lance's back. Fingers curled in his jacket, and Lance pressed his head between the crook of Keith's neck and shoulder, body shuddering.

Keith rubbed his back with soft, gentle circles, and for a minute Lance let himself sink into the grip, into the touch. When he opened his eyes again, his marks were fully glowing. He chuckled and pulled back, swiping at his eyes. Keith blinked in surprise, studying his face. "Your marks are-"

"I know," Lance laughed, rolling his eyes. "Intense emotion, I think, is what triggers it."

Keith hummed and held out the crook of his arm. Lance took it and together they sauntered back to the house, ducking inside just in time to watch the majority of The Incredibles with the rest of their friends.

_~~_

_Four_

"Happy birthday!"

Pidge shook her head with a grin, blowing out the candles of the cake that Hunk had plopped in front of her. It was a tiered cake, a dark green, and spotting it were icing re-creations of the little fluffball aliens that Pidge had taken from the trash planet and now littered Altea. "You guys didn't have to do this," she chuckled, leaning back as Hunk stepped in with a knife to slice into the layers.

Lance leaned against Keith's shoulder. "Sure we did. We couldn't miss your 18th birthday."

She rolled her eyes and passed a slice of cake to Coran, who handed it off to Krolia. "Not like I can even do anything different other than vote."

"You can drink legally in like, half the countries in the world," Keith pointed out. He was relaxed under Lance's touch. "And you definitely have the means to get to those places."

Pidge hummed, handing off another slice of cake to Keith, who passed it Lance. "That's true. You guys celebrating your 21st's later this year planning on going to another country?"

Hunk, who'd already celebrated his birthday, looked back at Lance and Keith, handing the last slice of cake to Shiro. "Yeah, what are those plans looking like?"

Lance shrugged. "I mean yeah, definitely holding my party in Cuba with my grandparents. No one would even blink if you had a drink or two."

"Plus, you helped save the world," Shiro pointed out. He took a bite of cake and his eyelashes fluttered in delight. Curtis was a mirror image next to him. "I think you deserve a drink or two… oh my god Hunk, this is amazing."

Hunk flushed and thanked Shiro, and as they started exchanging recipes, Lance nudged Keith and tilted his head. "What about you? Where are you going to have your birthday?"

Keith's lips parted and he looked down at the cake, poking at it with his fork for a moment before taking a bite. The glimmer in his eyes betrayed his lack of words, and he took a deep breath. "I wasn't actually planning on celebrating it, so."

"What?" Lance demanded, forgetting his cake for a second. "Dude, you have to! It's your 21st!"

Keith gave him such a sad smile that Lance had to stop. "It's not, though. Not technically."

"The space whale," Lance remembered, looking back over at the group. He got quiet, thinking, taking small bites of his cake and trying not to actively moan at how good it was. Fucking Hunk and his fucking baking. "I mean…to be fair, it's not my 21st either. Or Hunk's. Or Pidge's 18th, for that matter. That year we lost in space? Where we were messed up in the alternate dimension portal thingy? None of us know how old we actually are, man."

"You don't?" Keith asked, looking sideways at him.

Lance nodded, scraping the icing off the plate and wondering when he'd finished the cake. He'd have to get another piece. "Yeah. The three of us have talked about it. We just decided to go on the years here. No sense being more confused than necessary during all this, right?"

Keith frowned, staring down at his own empty plate. "I…I guess. How come you guys didn't talk about it with us?"

Lance shrugged. "Never really came up, you know?"

"Right."

His voice was despondent, and Lance glanced over to find Keith's jaw set in a hard line, his brows furrowed. "Hey," he murmured. Keith didn't look at him, and Lance turned back to the party, gripping Keith's elbow lightly between his fingers. "We're gonna go set up the surprise in the garden, Hunk!"

Pidge looked up in surprise. There was a smudge of icing on her cheek. "The WHAT?"

Hunk grinned and tilted his head. "None of your business. Have fun!"

"What do you MEAN it's none of my business, it's my BIRTHDAY?"

Lance tugged Keith out into the yard, where Pidge's surprise really was waiting, covered in a tarp, and took the empty plate and fork from his hands. He tossed them on the picnic table and took Keith's hands back in his, careful not to grip too hard. "Hey. I'm sorry. We should have talked to you about it, seen how you felt. Is this just about your age?"

Keith shrugged, but he didn't pull away, so Lance forged on. "Cause whatever it is, dude, we're here for you. I'm here for you. You know that."

"I don't…"

Lance waited. Keith's fingers flexed in his grip and Lance started dragging his thumbs across the backs of Keith's hands, startled by how smooth they were. His eyes were dark right now, a clear indicator of his mood, and his shoulders were tense.

"I don't _have_ a place to celebrate."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Lance demanded, surprised by just how vehemently he said it.

Keith looked shocked too, his eyes wide when he looked up, cheeks flushed. "What?"

"You have here," Lance said, spreading his arms to gesture to Altea. He gripped Keith's hands again. "You have the Garrison. Pidge's house, Shiro and Curtis' house, Hunk's place, you have _my_ home. Keith, if you think for a second you have nowhere to celebrate just because you don't have a physical house on Earth, you're an idiot."

Keith's jaw was loose, and his eyes were flickering over Lance's face at about a thousand miles a second. "I…"

"We want to celebrate with you," Lance said, softer this time. He stepped closer, moved his grip on Keith's hands so that their fingers were loosely intertwined. "I want to celebrate. We're alive, and we might have no fucking idea how old we are, but dammit, we're celebrating your birthday and we're getting everyone drunk if it's the last thing we ever do because I'd pay to see Shiro intoxicated."

Keith let a laugh spill and Lance smiled, feeling his marks start to warm on his face. He couldn't stop them if he wanted to, so he just let it happen, stepped even closer, until they were practically touching. "We're here, man. You have so many homes here you can celebrate in."

Keith's fingers curled in his. They were almost the same height, Keith just the tiniest bit taller, and Lance kept eye contact. "You just need to ask," he murmured, and he wasn't sure if he was referring to having a party or the way he wanted so badly to just push in and kiss him.

The sound of Keith swallowing was almost louder than the door out front slamming open, Pidge's shriek of delight filling the air as she raced for the garden. Keith and Lance ripped apart, burning, and looked back at her present, still hidden by the tarp Hunk had thrown over it the night before. They made eye contact, panicked this time, and flew for the rope holding it down.

By the time Pidge rounded the corner, Lance was leaning against the desert bike (identical to Keith's old one but with green and gold accents) with a cheeky grin and Keith was straddling the seat like nothing had ever happened.

_~~_

_Five_

Two years, six months, and twenty three days after the defeat of Honerva, Lance was back in a pilot's seat racing across the universe.

Not racing in an "against the clock" way, though there was a clock involved, and not racing in a panicked way. He was wearing little more than his normal clothes, jeans and a t-shirt and a jacket, a helmet on his head, and he was laughing breathlessly.

"You guys SUCK!" Pidge shrieked in his ear. "I can't believe you cut me off at Slidokjeeg! Assholes!"

Lance stuck his tongue out even though he knew she couldn't see him. "Too slow, Pidgeon!"

Hunk's laughter was bright. "Sorry Pidge, gotta be faster next time!"

"Don't worry, Pidge, I got them," Keith said. He was neck and neck with Lance, Hunk just behind them, and Lance pushed forward harder on the controls.

"Don't make promises you can't keep, Kogane," Lance teased.

"I never do, Sanchez."

The burst of speed Keith's ship put on was startling, but Lance refused to let up, edging harder and faster. The Balmera was in sight now, the end goal, and his shoulders were aching from pushing so hard. "Come on, come on, come on," he muttered.

Shay was waiting at the bottom, smiling broadly as she watched Lance and Keith, neck and neck, come bursting down the runway. She looked down at the stopwatch in her hands as they bolted from the cockpits while Hunk was landing. Pidge was still about a minute back, but Keith and Lance raced over with goofy, childish smiles on their faces as they pushed at each other. "Who won?" Lance demanded.

"It was definitely me," Keith assured him.

Shay's smile was a beam of sunshine as she started laughing. "You'll hate this. You tied. You both crossed the atmosphere at the same moment. The Balmera told me so."

"Are you KIDDING me?" Lance shouted. He took off his helmet and mock-spiked it onto the ground, scowling down at the Balmera. "Jerk."

The planet rumbled just a little, like it was laughing, and Hunk chuckled, swinging an arm around his girlfriend and squeezing her. "Thanks for timing, babe. I knew this would happen."

"Honestly, if you guys hadn't cut Pidge off, she might have won," Keith said with a shrug.

"And then your team would have won, and I couldn't let that happen," Lance teased.

Hunk shook his head, smiling, and nodded towards Shay's house. "Come on, lets go get dinner."

The group glanced back as Pidge finally landed and stormed from the cockpit of her ship, helmet clutched in her hands. "YOU'RE DEAD, SANCHEZ!"

Lance grinned and gave them a two fingered salute. "I'm off to hide until she cools down, save me some food!"

~

Keith found him about twenty minutes later, sitting cross-legged on top of a larger pile of rocks, sitting silently and staring out over the Balmera. His hair was blowing in the breeze just a little, and his marks were glowing faintly. "You good?" he asked, climbing up to join him.

"I'm great," Lance said sincerely, scooting over to make room. "Pidge stop looking for me?"

"Yeah, but she's still gonna kick your ass," Keith teased, bumping him with his shoulder.

They chuckled together and then fell into a comfortable silence, watching a group of Balmeran farmers drive across the terrain in the distance. After a minute, Keith spoke. "You sure you're fine?"

"I am," Lance promised. "I swear. Just had some things on my mind lately. Nothing bad," he said at Keith's look. "Just…different. Stuff I…I'm nervous about."

"Teaching?" Keith asked.

Lance hummed and drew his knees up to his chin. "No. I mean yeah, I'm nervous to start teaching again in the fall. It's the first mixed class of aliens and humans, I have _no_ idea how that's gonna go. But Shiro and Curtis and Mr. Holt and Matt will all be around, so I'm not too crazy nervous about it. So will Iverson, to a lesser extent."

"Don't be mean," Keith chuckled.

"I'm not! You know I love him."

"I know. So what is it then, if not that?"

Lance fell quiet, his fingers digging into the fabric of his jeans. "Promise you won't laugh?"

"No."

"Keith."

Keith snorted and nudged Lance again, smiling softly. "Lance. I promise."

"I'm…you. You're making me nervous."

Keith backed away quickly, his heart thudding in his ears. "I'm-?"

Lance twisted on the rock to face him, tucking on knee up under his body and letting the other leg dangle over the edge. "Not in a bad way," he assured him. "Not…never in a bad way."

Keith's mouth and throat were dry, but he still swallowed. Stayed quiet, let Lance collect his thoughts. As he spoke, his cheeks started flushing, and along with them his Altean marks. "I'm…nervous around you. About how you see me, and how I want you to see me, and I…I want you to… _I_ want…I'm not good at this."

Keith took pity on him, reached out and settled a hand on his knee. The marks deepened in color and Lance looked up. "I'm not either," Keith said gently. "Good at this. It's okay."

Lance pressed his lips into a line and took a breath through his nose, shutting his eyes. Keith studied his face, let himself relax. "Your marks glow with strong emotion, right?"

"Yeah," Lance's voice cracked.

"Is this embarrassment, nervousness, or…?"

"Maybe all three."

Keith glanced between them, tried to figure out a way to situate himself, and ended up settling, embarrassingly, for sliding forwards until he was straddling Lance's lap. He was still on his knees so that his weight wasn't completely on him, and so Lance was forced to look up at him. "Can I ask?"

Lance's hands trembled at his sides, and Keith reached down and grabbed them, let Lance realize he was shaking just as much. Lance swallowed. "Do you want to ask?"

Keith settled Lance's hands on his hips and let his own drift upwards, cup Lance's cheeks. His right hand splayed out on his face, his thumb settled directly under his mark and his other hand closer to his ears and back of his head. "I do."

"Then please do."

"Will you kiss me?"

Lance's laugh was breathless. "Only if you kiss back."

"Count on it."

Lance moved first, despite Keith's comments, and his lips settled against Keith's, chaste. They pressed there for a moment and then pulled back. They studied each other for a long moment, and then Keith surged in, unable to hold off any longer.

His mouth opened against Lance's and he gasped into the touch, letting his weight settle into Lance's lap fully and his arms drift back, one dangling over his back and the other hand fisted in Lance's hair. His tongue was hot, gentle, and it tangled with Keith's, made him gasp as it dragged against the roof of his mouth. He broke off the kiss, gasping, and trailed it across his jawline, back to his neck, under his chin. Lance's groan was soft, and his hands twisted in Keith's shirt hem.

"Not to interrupt or anything," came Shay's voice, very awkwardly from the base of the rock.

They broke apart in startled embarrassment, Keith groaning and thumping his head into Lance's shoulder. Shay's chuckle was gentle. "But dinner is ready."

Lance had a hand pressed to his face. "Can you maybe… _not_ mention this to Hunk and Pidge, please?"

"Certainly," Shay said, her voice now bright with amusement. "I'll let you do that yourselves. Please do not do anything rambunctious tonight, my parents will be visiting."

With that, she strode back off towards the house, and Lance and Keith pulled apart, looking at each other for a solid ten seconds before bursting into relieved giggles. Keith let his hands glide down Lance's sides, dipping his thumbs under the hem of his shirt and stroking circles into his skin. "What a first kiss," he snorted.

"At least it was Shay and not Pidge."

They shuddered, looked at each other, and started giggling all over again.

_~~_

_Six_

"That's so fucking cute."

"We're not keeping her, Lance," Keith said in exasperation.

Lance flung a hand out dramatically, gesturing to the itty bitty kitten that was curled up between Kosmo's paws on the floor of the kitchen. The wolf was panting contently, occasionally bending down to lick the kitten on the head, leaving an adorable cowlick sticking up on the top of the feline's head and making her squeak. "Kosmo loves her, Keith, how can you say no?"

"Because Kosmo found her wandering the streets so we have no idea if she belongs to someone or has fleas or rabies or-"

"Kosmo literally crashed into a space whale in a meteor and you kept him."

Keith stared at the kitten, his mouth hanging helplessly. He watched as Kosmo once again nuzzled the baby, and a squeak of protest spilled from his lips. "Fuck. That's cute."

"Told you."

"Kosmo, the apartment doesn't allow more than one pet," Keith tried.

Kosmo whined and nosed the kitten again, and Lance burst into laughter. "Come on, Keith, Kosmo totally counts as more than one pet. He's the size of a fucking hippo. We can hide a normal housecat. You know you want her."

"What would we even name her?" Keith asked finally, throwing up his hands in the air, a clear sign that Lance and Kosmo had won the argument.

Lance squatted next to Kosmo, detangling the kitten gently from his paws. The fact that Kosmo let him, panting happily, proved just how much they both clearly wanted her. The kitten was probably only three weeks old, with patchy orange fur and bright yellow eyes. "I was thinking Pumpkin."

"That's such a normal name," Keith protested, sitting down next to Lance and eyeing the cat.

Lance plopped the kitten in Keith's lap without warning and she squeaked, tumbling over his legs and gnawing at his shoelaces. Keith froze, hands hovering, unsure what to do. "That's why it should be Pumpkin. We need something normal."

"I like not having normal."

Lance hummed and leaned over, kissing Keith on the cheek. "What would you propose, then?"

"…Yam."

"Keith! We can't name the kitten Yam!" Lance whined.

"How come? It's a food, it's orange, and it's weirder than Pumpkin or Cookie or some bullshit like that."

Lance thought long and hard, looking at Kosmo. "What do you think buddy? Do ya like yams?"

Kosmo boofed, leaning down to push his nose against the kitten, and Lance chuckled, scratching the wolf behind the ears. "Yam it is, then."

"The landlord is gonna kill us."

"Nah. She doesn't even have to know."

Keith shook his head with a faint smile and finally picked the kitten up, cradling her gently in his hands and pulling her to his face. With a squawk, she licked at his nose, and Keith burst into laughter, leaning against his boyfriend. "What if we stopped having a landlord?" he asked finally.

"Like…we kill her?"

"No! I mean like…what if…hypothetically, Shiro and Curtis offered me the deed to the house they lived in before they got married? The one on the outskirts of town, near the Garrison."

"I'd say why the hell didn't you tell me this three months ago when I found a cockroach in the shower?"

"It wasn't an offer three months ago," Keith explained, stroking Yam behind the ears. "It is now."

"Hmm. Big step, owning a house together," Lance noted, reaching over to scratch the kitten under the chin. "The one Shiro and Curtis got married at?"

"Yeah, that's the one."

Lance's grin was cheeky. "What are you trying to say, babe?" he teased.

Keith snorted and bumped Lance with his knee. "We've been dating six months, Lance, I'm not proposing yet. I'm just saying…we could adopt way more animals if we owned the property they'd be living on."

"Let's do it," Lance said determinedly. "Call Shiro. Say yes. We can introduce him and Curtis to Yam. I still can't believe we're naming her Yam."

Keith grinned and settled the wiggly kitten back in front of Kosmo, where the wolf promptly licked her again. "You love me for it. Yes, then? To the house?"

Lance pressed a kiss to his lips and leaned their foreheads together, marks glowing subtly. "Absolutely."

**Author's Note:**

> Tomorrow's fic: Drunk Nights, Stranger Things


End file.
